The Colorful Dowood Triplets.

A Hidden Gem

Sumptious, Scrumptious Hostas.

The Colorful Dogwood Triplets.
When I was little my mother would talk about how beautiful certain trees and shrubs looked in the snow.  She would speak of how beautiful the Birch looked with their stark black twiggy branches would show up so well against the white background.  she also talked about the golden Willow branches which poked through the snow banks. Probably the most showy shrub which grew at the bottom of the lane near our house was the Red Twig Dogwood with it’s wine colored stems. Cornus (sericea)stolonifera is one of 3 similar species grow here and through the northern areas right around the globe.

A Hidden Gem
This is an article I wrote for ‘The Society of Friends of  St Ann’s Academy‘.  St Ann’s Academy is where  most of the pictures for this article were taken. One job I have done at St. Ann’s Academy is checking the plants(trees and shrubs) listed as growing here in 1986 was correct. For the most part the list was correct, some had trees had been removed due to damage or illness. Many new plants had to be added to the list by 2004 when I started doing this work. This was

They Only come out in the Winter Here.
Were I come from the climate is cold and some types of plants are not well represented in the wild or are do not grow there at all. An example is broad leaf evergreen plants. The only types which have survived the extremely cold are those which have adapted themselves to be short enough to be coved by snow during the long winter. Another plant which has adapted itself in a most usual way is the Licorice Fern(Polypodium glycyrrhiza) which grow here on the mild wet coast.

I Metasequoia in the Park Today.
When I was in Horticulture school way back in the dark ages we learned about 300 trees and shrubs, the hardest for me were getting the conifers correct in my mind. These are the needle trees and shrubs such as Junipers of which there are many species, hybrids and cultivars. Of the group of conifers we were introduced to and studied several lost their needles every autumn.  These species which lose their needles are not that common around here except for the curious case of  the Metasequoia glyptostroboides (Dawn Redwood) and what an interesting story it h

A Very Well Behaved Missy.
We are now on the edge of what I call ‘change over season’ which is when we move from the summer season of warm dry weather to the cool wet winter. This time of the late year is when big storms start to roll in dumping vast amounts of rain along with heavy winds. Now until the start of December is when we have power outages and roads blocked by tree limbs falling across them. The trees which were glorious in their fall coat of colorful leaves are suddenly bear from the repeated gusting of wind and punishing rains. The sounds of creaking tree limbs, rumblings of the tides and sometimes distant thunder make us want to bundle up warmly.  This is the time